Music is awesome

Picture of the Day] An amusing sign I saw when I got take-out from Oodles of Noodles.

Mood] Very pleased

Weather] Relatively warm, 75 Degrees

Currently] In my room

Quote of the Day] "Rock and roll is the hamburger that ate the world."

Things are moving along quickly with class and otherwise. We've pumping through music at X-Chromotones rehearsal! It's awesome. In case you are just catching up with my blog, the X-Chromotones is an all-female acappella (singing) group here at IIT! :D I am currently musical director of said group, so I've been chugging through different music deciding what we can be singing for this semester! Since I finished arranging Won't Say I'm In Love, from Disney's Hercules (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_bEWXs_FX4), we've been working on that and it is pretty awesome. We have a soloist now and are just working on getting it all together (mostly memorized!) I hope that it all goes well.

Other songs on the agenda are Still Alive, from Portal the video game (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI), Beyond the Sea, the Celtic Woman arrangement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz_fcbKKmQA) and an original mash-up by one of our members, called Why Do you Let me Stay Here/Sexy Bitch. The last is comprised of these two songs: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkzRyHa9a6g&ob=av3e) and (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo_7bhk1UzA). I'll keep you updated as we go along!

CONCERT IN NOVEMBER!!! :D BE THERE.

Singed out!
Jaye

Fresh in the cIITy

Pictures of the Day] Party, Mind Games, Sack Race, Panorama of my location

Mood] Excited and Tired

Weather] Cool and incredibly windy

Currently] In my room

Quote of the Day] "You try to give away what you want yourself."

So Fresh in the Ciity was awesome fun. It was absolutely horrid weather to begin with. It rained until at least one or two in the afternoon, but then it was beautiful! The sun started coming out and everything. :) We began at Morton Park on campus (the one in front of VanderCook) and then we did a series of games to get the freshmen ready! They did a sack race, magic footprints, mind games, and then they grabbed a packet based on where they wanted to eat for lunch. Then, they were off! At each station (Navy Pier, The Loop, Mag Mile, Museum Campus, Lincoln Park Zoo, etc..) they had to perform a series of tasks and trivia to go on. They could answer as many questions as they wanted in order to get points.

I was stationed at Museum Campus. We had them create sand castles, take photos of different statues, answer trivia, and throw a frisbee. It was good fun and there was tons of teamwork. It's free for freshmen too! Free lunch, free dinner (we had vendors from all over the city come), and free cash prizes!!! It was great and although it was incredibly rainy, there was a good turn-out.

What a way to spend a Saturday!
REALLY tired,
Jaye

Site and Field Trip

Pictures of the Day] Panoramas!

Mood] BLAH

Weather] Cool and incredibly windy

Currently] In the basement

Quote of the Day] "My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?"

So we went on a field trip to Evanston Art Center as part of our assessment of a site possibly in need of preservation. The day was beautiful. It was bright and sunny, but very very windy. My allergies definitely flared up. Driving to Evanston took about 30-45 minutes. There was some construction along the way so I had to navigate around that, but otherwise it was a very lovely drive.

The Art Center itself was a very old building. It reminded me a lot of the Ecology Action Center in Bloomington-Normal. The interior has winding passages that are maze-like to different areas, most leading to what were servant quarters or store rooms. The grounds are very nice as well. There is an entrance to the beach area and also a park-like grove. The major problems with the site include an overgrowth of trees and brush that block the views to the lake and a drainage issue. There is a Jensen Council Ring that, partially embedded behind a slope, creates a dirt trail for runoff when it rains, which inevitably transforms into a flooding, water-fall effect.

This is the semester project for my Historic Landscape Preservation class, so we'll be learning a lot of skills in assessing the land and researching how to solve the problems. Hopefully a suitable, relatively reasonably priced solution will be reached.

Quite tired,
Jaye

Back to School!

Pictures of the Day] New haircut!

Mood] Excited

Weather] Nastily hot

Currently] In my room

Quote of the Day] "In great affairs men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small things they show themselves as they are."

So I have mixed feelings about coming back to school. The first couple weeks of classes have been nothing but hectic. I feel like I haven't had any time to breathe! my new apartment is great, but my room is still a mess. I keep rushing in and out that there is barely any time to clean up. I wake up pretty much every day at 7:00 AM and don't sleep until about one or two in the morning. I don't mean to scare, but I thought that being a 4th year meant relaxing more! All the 4th years I knew last year seemed to be living the high life! They had so much time on their hands!

My classes have been really interesting. I have Prairie School Landscape Design, Landscape Preservation, and Shakespeare Text/Film/Stage, I mean, aside from Studio and stuff. Shakespeare has been really fun. We watch movies and discuss the readings of the plays analytically. The two Landscape courses are also very fun. We plow through a ton of different readings. I also have Visual Training, which is nice. We've been working on an exercise called four white rectangles. I'll have to post my plates sometime! Basically the rules are you are allowed one horizontal black line and one vertical black line, both of any widths, and you have to place them on the white crescent board to create a visually balanced piece. It's a lot harder than you think it would be!

Well there's a lot more to say, but there's also a lot more homework to do, so I'll keep you updated with classes as I go!

Schooled out,

Jaye

The New Place!

Pictures of the Day] My new apartment in Gunsaulus Hall

Mood] Freakin' excited!

Weather] Cool

Currently] In my new apartment

Quote of the day: "If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little."

So my new place is awe-tastic! I was even more pleasantly surprised than I thought I would be. I was expecting it to be pretty cool, but this is awesome! I am now living in an upper classmen undergraduate apartment in Gunsaulus Hall. There is a kitchen, a living area, bedroom, and small bathroom. I still have a lot of cleaning up to do, but I think it'll be nice once it's all decorated. I have some things up now though. The only bad thing about it is that it is a little hot sometimes. My roommate and I put up a ton of fans though to help cool down the bedroom. The living area is pretty cool because there is an air conditioning-like machine in there. It'll get removed though once it gets colder.

I have a new desk for studio. The studio space we are in is pretty small and it is shared by another studio. We have about 30 people in both studios. The other studio in the space is about urban farming. The studio that I am in about moveable structures on the Chicago Riverwalk. More on that later!

Quite happy,

Jaye

Cake Pops

Picture of the Day] MS Paint Harry Potter scene. Hee hee. I get inspired.

Mood] Lazy

Weather] Cool and sunny

Currently] At home

Quote of the day: "Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds"

So my sister showed me this awesome blog called bakerella.com! I'm determined to make some of the cute cake-pops that this woman has. They are absolutely fabulous! She does cute designs for each holiday and events like the Emmy Awards, Superbowl, birthdays, and more! It's pretty much my new baking equivalent to smittenkitchen.com :D I'm addicted to these crafty blogs!

Nothing much has been happening otherwise. I haven't cooked or baked in a while, so no new images to post, but I'm sure that there will be photos to come of delicious food once I'm back in college. I plan on trying to get some good meals down. If I have any time, hopefully I might be able to host some parties too! :D

Out for now,
Jaye

Home

Pictures of the Day] Apricot Button Cookie

Mood] Tired and moody

Weather] Pretty cool

Currently] In the kitchen

Quote of the day: "Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."

Soooooooooooooooooooooo things are annoying. I hate it when you plan something and it doesn't turn out right. I ended up trying to get together with some friends and due to unforseen circumstances, it just didn't work out. I mean, it's unfortunate, but totally legitimate and I can't help but feel upset about it anyway. I think it's natural. So of course what did I do? I baked! I made these small bite size cookies with sugar free apricot and blackberry jam. They were very soft and crumbly, not exactly to my taste, but decent enough. I used smart balance margarine and splenda.

Anyway, not much has been happening. I've been home putzing around, cleaning up now and then. Within the few weeks I have returned, my room has become a mess. It looks completely disheveled.

In other news, re-reading Harry Potter has been awesome! :D I am finding some more details that I overlooked before, so hooray! Not much else to report now...

Baked out,
~Jaye